Conference seeks to address college male issues

Moffett pleased with the outcome of the Men’s Conference, hopes for a return next year

by Joe O’Connell

Trinity University held its first annual Men’s Conference this past Saturday. Throughout the day, male students attended sessions, workshops and panels dealing with issues that typically affect college-aged males.

The driving force behind the Trinity’s Men’s Conference was Raphael Moffett, director of Campus and Community Involvement.

“Nationally, there’s been a lot of research focused on college men and their disengagement within their communities,� Moffett said. “College men overall have some challenges in getting a degree. They have lower grades than females, but higher amounts of conduct issues and are less involved.�

Moffett believes that before the Men’s Conference, male students were often left without support to get involved at Trinity.

“We have some very talented, gifted young men here, and for some reason it doesn’t always show on campus. We wanted to try to knock down barriers so they can shine,� Moffett said. “Since I’ve been here there hasn’t been a concentrated effort to motivate men to get involved.�

To get male students motivated to talk about issues such as health, relationships and campus involvement, the conference coordinating committee worked out sessions featuring faculty, alumni, current students and visiting speakers.

One of the most popular sessions was presented by Sheryl Tynes, who spoke about how men handle themselves in relationships with women.

“Dr. Tynes’ session was phenomenal because of her ability to be transparent when dealing with often uncomfortable issues,� Moffett said.

Another highlight was an alumni panel, featuring male Trinity alumni in a variety of different fields discussing career options outside of Trinity.

“The alumni panel was my favorite because it was much eaiser to relate because you knew they have had similar experiences,� said sophomore Taylor Stratton, who attended the conference.

Students also presented sessions. Senior Maduka Ogba and Ben Newhouse spoke about ways for students to get more involved on campus.

“We felt that students would listen to people from their own age group; the sessions might seem more real,� Ogba said. “We also wanted to make sure to get students in action within a week.�

This strategy certainly worked, as Stratton attests to.

“Maduka’s presentation and involvment kind of inspired me to take more initiative in getting involved,� Stratton said.

Moffett and CCI, along with the conference coordinating committee began planning the conference a year ago. They started by bringing male students into focus groups to see which issues to bring into focus at the conference.

The issues brought up during these focus groups were put directly into the agenda for the Men’s Conference.

“(The students in the focus groups) expressed issues with study habits, misunderstanding professors’ expectations, how to study, how to engage women and not knowing what to do on campus,� Moffett said. “All of the sessions grew directly from these focus groups.�

Once the committee had these topics, they began to request speakers, teachers, students and others, and started to plan the sessions.

“(After the focus groups,) we had these big ideas and then it was a question of now how do we put these ideas into reality,� Ogba said.

Moffett said that everyone he asked was enthusiastic about speaking at the conference, and he had a lot of support from the administration.

“I got tremendous support from a lot of faculty, old and new. Some even helped with focus groups,� he said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without (Dean Tuttle’s and the administration’s) support.�

The Men’s Conference is not an end in itself, but a means for men becoming more involved.

“It’s a stepping stone,� Ogba said. “It’s a platform for guys to know who they are and how they can improve their relationship with the community.�

The effort to get men motivated at Trinity will not end with this Men’s Conference. Moffett looks to improve the conference agenda for next year.

“We wanted to throw a lot of information at the guys to see what worked and what didn’t and find out what to do next year. We’ll also bring in different people with different perspectives,� Moffett said.

For Moffett, the bigger the conference, the happier he will be, and he knows that the sky is the limit.

“If there were two hundred people there I would’ve been happy but not satisfied,� he said. “The more we can get the message out, the more we can change the culture.�